BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7. Conversion of existing Southern Gas Corridor into a hydrogen pipeline can be an option in the future as demand for natural gas decreases, Trend reports with reference to the Offshore Wind Roadmap for Azerbaijan.
The document was released by the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“Azerbaijan also has opportunities for export of both electricity and hydrogen, depending on the competitiveness of its supply.
Options include:
Use of existing transmission interconnectors and construction of increased capacity in order to supply electricity to (and through) neighboring markets;
Injecting hydrogen into existing gas supplies to Europe to increase calorific value, or to extract at destination hubs;
Building of a new hydrogen-only pipeline, or conversion of existing Southern Gas Corridor as demand for natural gas decreases,” reads the document.
The analysis reveals that depending on renewable energy developments in neighboring markets, there are likely to be increased opportunities for Azerbaijan to trade electricity to Georgia, Iran, and Russia.
“Azerbaijan’s inter-connection capacity of 1.9GW is projected to increase in the next decade, and the planned system synchronization with Iran will lead to greater opportunity to trade electricity. With significant OSW capacity, net trading will be export.
Early assessment suggests that hydrogen export from Azerbaijan is unlikely to be competitive and will face technical and commercial barriers. The cost of green hydrogen is heavily dependent on the LCOE of the electricity used to produce it. The market for hydrogen is likely to be at a continental or global level. For Azerbaijan to produce competitive hydrogen from OSW for high-volume export it would need to compete in international markets with green hydrogen produced elsewhere.”
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn